1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a game of chance, particularly to a game of chance employing the assembly of two coded gamepieces to form or recover an original symbol or message. The game is particularly useful in applications involving advertising or promotion wherein game pieces are distributed to the public in connection with advertising and/or sales promotion campaigns.
2. Description of Prior Art
Heretofore many different types of chance games have been employed in advertising and/or sales promotion campaigns for the promotion of various products and services. However all of these games had limitations and drawbacks which restricted their applicability.
One type of matching card game employed a gamepiece or card which had a number or other symbol thereon, but which was hidden from discovery by a masking layer or overcoat of an opaque substance. The cards were distributed to the public who had to scrape or wash the overcoat off and then try to match the uncovered symbol with a predetermined winning symbol. This type of game often had the disadvantage of easy discovery since it was sometimes possible to hold the cards to the light and easily ascertain the covered symbol. Also the fabrication of the cards with the overlay coat was a relatively expensive operation, requiring the use of special printing equipment and techniques. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it was not possible to use economical regular newspaper advertising and printing to maximum potential advantage; the cards had to be distributed in a special manner, such as by far more expensive direct mail advertising or newspaper/magazine inserts.
Another type of such game employed coded gamepieces wherein a symbol was encoded by the use of complex color masking patterns. Decoding was done by the use of a colored overlay which filtered out certain masking lines and patterns so that the underlying pattern could be ascertained by visual inspection. This type of game was likewise expensive to fabricate because it also required special color printing techniques, special decoding masks, and special distribution means. Also the cards could be easily decoced if one had the colored overlay. Finally it was limited in its commercial scope to use in advertising and sales prommotion campaigns.
Other types of such games employed a plurality of gamepieces, each of which had a minor part of the message or symbol to be recovered, whereby users of the game had to collect and assemble a plurality of pieces to make the message or symbol(s) to be recovered. This type of game was also fraught with disadvantages of expense since many different printing runs, one for each of the different gamepieces, had to be employed. Also the gamepieces had to be distributed and printed by special means; it was not possible to provide the gamepieces as part of regular periodical advertisements since all copies had to be identical.
Various other types of matching games have been employed, but these also suffered from one or more of the above disadvantages and also had other disadvantages of their own.